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*Major pet peeve with this book that I need to point out right now: Alex ditched the Aussie setting for America? How very uncool of you Alex, how very uncool. The Rugby players are now footballers? The School Captain is now the 'Class President' (which sounds so much less awesome then school cap, can I just say)? How smooth. Seriously?!? Who does that? Who changes their setting in the sequel and just pretends it was like that the whole time? Will the next one be set in the UK just because a lot of English people bought the book? Let us see my friends, let us see.*
ANYWAY...Hades is a huge improvement on the first book--which I didn't even finish. The first book was sunny and naieve whilst the second was darker and exciting (compared to the first, that is). The boring setting of Venus Cove (is there such thing as a Mary Sue SETTING? Because if there is, this would be one. Omg. I'm going to coin that term.) was replaced with the underworld which was a more interesting part of the story then any of the characters.
All of the characters were really hollow and one dimensional, I didn't feel like any of them progressed with the story. In the same way, I didn't feel like the story and conflict ever offered anything more then hollow threats. The main conflict was that Beth might've had to stay in the much more exciting and interesting underworld, Hades (Dear author that went to my friends' school and lived down the road from me: please check up on your Greek mythology. I know they teach it at MacRobb and Korowa, so don't give me that look). The other conflict was that if she stayed in 'Hades' she'd have to stay with Jake...Jake, the most interesting (if not cliched) character in the whole book. I wasn't exactly on the edge of my seat whilst reading this.
Also, I felt a large amount of bible pushing. I get that the whole story was about religion and keeping faith but often the pushing of virtues hindered the plot and character development. Especially at the very end with Jake and Beth's deal; That could've been so much more exciting if not for the Christian values. Not to mention the cliched timing of the angels arriving.
That's the other thing. I don't geel like the main youthful characters, Beth and Xavier, ever actually contributed to the resolution of the conflict. I don't know if this was nother bout of bible-value pushing but every time something happened plot-wise it seemed like the adults had made it happen. This caused both Beht and Xavier to become danzels in ditress who just wandered around heart sick. They never used their skills to try and save Beth and they relied, activley, on the older angels to do something (although Xavier was all talk ALL THE TIME which got annoying.)
Another thing that annoyed me was that Xavier happily ditched all future plans for Beth, despite knowing her for less then a year and being dedicated to school for his whole life. At least Beth was objected to it.
The plot was really predictable and lacking in some places but the rich setting of Hades and the dark personalities attempted to make up for it. This book was a huge improvement on the first but still needed richer characters who weren't so love sick. I was kind of sad that Jake died because he was the most diverse, deep character (which, to be honest, isn't saying much). I hope my fellow Map 64 Melbournian Alex manages to pull out another 3 dimensional character like Jake or give Xavier a few more dimensions to explore. I really don't think there's any way to save Beth at this point (like, jeez, just the NAME is a Mary Sue name!!)
Lastly, for the next book I hope the plot is a little more menacing and more 'win-or-die' although, if it is the apocolypse, like it sets itself up to be, I'm sure it'll be put out a big conflict that trumps the other two.
Other things that kind of sucked
1. Apparently girls can't do anything for themselves
2. Co DEPENDENCY JIOBUNSINVRUIPEVHREIOVJRE
3. Just Beth and Xavier together in general
4. The 'sex is wrong' message
5. The "slut shaming"
I didn't HATE this like most people did but I can see that it's extremely flawed and not good literature on any level. It was just a quick book for me that I read whilst I was going up to the mountains to Ski, and I just tried not to look into it so deeply.
Plot Rating: 6.5/10
Character Rating: 6/10
Style of Writing: 6/10
First 1/3: 5/10
Second 1/3: 7/10
Third 1/3: 7.5/10
MC Rating: 5.5/10
Scenery Rating: 8/10
Concept Rating: 6/10
Emotional Rating: 7/10
Overall Rating: 64.5/100o
ANYWAY...Hades is a huge improvement on the first book--which I didn't even finish. The first book was sunny and naieve whilst the second was darker and exciting (compared to the first, that is). The boring setting of Venus Cove (is there such thing as a Mary Sue SETTING? Because if there is, this would be one. Omg. I'm going to coin that term.) was replaced with the underworld which was a more interesting part of the story then any of the characters.
All of the characters were really hollow and one dimensional, I didn't feel like any of them progressed with the story. In the same way, I didn't feel like the story and conflict ever offered anything more then hollow threats. The main conflict was that Beth might've had to stay in the much more exciting and interesting underworld, Hades (Dear author that went to my friends' school and lived down the road from me: please check up on your Greek mythology. I know they teach it at MacRobb and Korowa, so don't give me that look). The other conflict was that if she stayed in 'Hades' she'd have to stay with Jake...Jake, the most interesting (if not cliched) character in the whole book. I wasn't exactly on the edge of my seat whilst reading this.
Also, I felt a large amount of bible pushing. I get that the whole story was about religion and keeping faith but often the pushing of virtues hindered the plot and character development. Especially at the very end with Jake and Beth's deal; That could've been so much more exciting if not for the Christian values. Not to mention the cliched timing of the angels arriving.
That's the other thing. I don't geel like the main youthful characters, Beth and Xavier, ever actually contributed to the resolution of the conflict. I don't know if this was nother bout of bible-value pushing but every time something happened plot-wise it seemed like the adults had made it happen. This caused both Beht and Xavier to become danzels in ditress who just wandered around heart sick. They never used their skills to try and save Beth and they relied, activley, on the older angels to do something (although Xavier was all talk ALL THE TIME which got annoying.)
Another thing that annoyed me was that Xavier happily ditched all future plans for Beth, despite knowing her for less then a year and being dedicated to school for his whole life. At least Beth was objected to it.
The plot was really predictable and lacking in some places but the rich setting of Hades and the dark personalities attempted to make up for it. This book was a huge improvement on the first but still needed richer characters who weren't so love sick. I was kind of sad that Jake died because he was the most diverse, deep character (which, to be honest, isn't saying much). I hope my fellow Map 64 Melbournian Alex manages to pull out another 3 dimensional character like Jake or give Xavier a few more dimensions to explore. I really don't think there's any way to save Beth at this point (like, jeez, just the NAME is a Mary Sue name!!)
Lastly, for the next book I hope the plot is a little more menacing and more 'win-or-die' although, if it is the apocolypse, like it sets itself up to be, I'm sure it'll be put out a big conflict that trumps the other two.
Other things that kind of sucked
1. Apparently girls can't do anything for themselves
2. Co DEPENDENCY JIOBUNSINVRUIPEVHREIOVJRE
3. Just Beth and Xavier together in general
4. The 'sex is wrong' message
5. The "slut shaming"
I didn't HATE this like most people did but I can see that it's extremely flawed and not good literature on any level. It was just a quick book for me that I read whilst I was going up to the mountains to Ski, and I just tried not to look into it so deeply.
Plot Rating: 6.5/10
Character Rating: 6/10
Style of Writing: 6/10
First 1/3: 5/10
Second 1/3: 7/10
Third 1/3: 7.5/10
MC Rating: 5.5/10
Scenery Rating: 8/10
Concept Rating: 6/10
Emotional Rating: 7/10
Overall Rating: 64.5/100o